vSphere Plugin 3.0 and ActiveCluster

This document outlines how to use synchronous replication on Purity version 5.0.0 and later with the vSphere client plugin version 3.0.0. The vSphere plugin version 3.0 does not have native support for syncrep pods. This document outlines how to use the Pure FlashArray GUI and vSphere to update and configure volumes within a syncrep pod. For general information on how to configure and use syncrep in Purity 5.0 consult the Purity user manual.

Datastore Creation

Using the plugin, specify the datastore and the pod name using the double-colon naming convention. You can create a new syncrep pod, or find the name of an existing syncrep pod using the FlashArray GUI. Use the pod name in addition to the datastore name when creating the new datastore using the FlashArray vSphere plugin, following the format <pod name>::<datastore name>. See screenshot below.

The “Datastore Name” field has the following naming restrictions:

Single colon is not ok

Two or more colons is not ok

If there are two colons that are not adjacent, it's not ok

The two colons can't be placed at the start or end of the name string.

Other Datastore Operations

For datastore volumes in a syncrep pod, all other plugin actions which operate on a datastore work as usual, this includes:

Datastore deletion

Datastore renaming

Datastore resizing

Datastore Pod Updates

Move a datastore volume into a pod

To move an active datastore into a pod:

If the pod is stretched (added to an array), remove it from the array.

% purepod remove --array <your destination array> <pod name>

Move the volume backing the datastore into the pod:

% purevol move <volume name> <pod name>

Add the pod back to the array

% purepod add --array <your destination array> <pod name>

Move a datastore volume out of a pod

To move an active datastore out of a pod:

If the pod is stretched (added to an array), remove it from the array.

% purepod remove --array <your destination array> <pod name>

Move the volume backing the datastore out of the pod:

% purevol move <pod name>::<volume name> ‘’

Re-add the pod back to the array

% purepod add --array <your destination array> <pod name>

Known Issues

Update Datastore Protection

A datastore within a syncrep pod cannot be added to a protection group in version 5.0.0 of Purity. In this release, protection groups are for asynchronous replication only.

When selecting the ‘Pure Storage’ -> ‘Update Datastore Protection’ action, the list of protection groups available on the array is shown, but any attempt to add the syncrep datastore to any protection group will fail.